Phoenix: Spend, Spend, Spend!

A headline like this, reminiscent of Donald Trump’s “Drill, baby drill” promise, appeared recently in one of the Cork papers about the proposed development of a light rail (tram) system in that city. 

The article demanded immediate funding for the project. Like Dickens' Oliver, they want “More”! 

There has been a tsunami of state funding channeled into Leeside in recent times, the result of powerful political influence, but it’s certainly sensible to plan for such a development. 

I believe that Cork City did have trams in the late 19th century. What would make anyone in this neck of the woods wonder is when will we see progress on our agenda? 

Spend, baby spend in Waterford? It gets fairly tiresome to be like (again) Dickens’ Mr. Micawber, “waiting for something to turn up”! 

The new government has been remarkably quiet on funding in this area. Newly elected Fine Gael TD, Minister John Cummins confirmed on December 11 last that the government had formally approved a major capital project at SETU's Cork Road campus. This is a 12,800sqm new engineering building. Three and a half months later there is still no sign of the project commencing. 

Tenders for the work were received in April 2024 and 12 months later, we are still waiting. 

During his long campaign to get elected Minister Cummins batted away complaints or comment about this project delay using a lexicon of, shall we say, excuses. He is probably as anxious as anyone to see the project get underway. Isn’t it about time it actually happened? 

Nothing has been built at SETU Cork Road for nearly 20 years. An excellent institution, which was on the cusp of independent university status in 2006, awaits equity.

What is noticeable since the formation of our new government is the almost deathly silence that has fallen over Waterford projects. Think Waterford Airport! When Matt Shanahan was a TD there were almost daily media updates and Dáil reports on matters relating to Waterford. Since the election, silence. 

The exception is the opening of cath lab facilities at weekends in UHW. We now have seven day, 8am to 8pm cover for emergency interventional cardiology for heart attacks. That is 50% cover on a weekly basis. It turns out, that on the first weekend of operation, a significant number of patients were given emergency cardiac intervention in the cath lab at UHW. This was the first weekend of Saturday / Sunday 8-8 Cath lab opening. 

Mr Shanahan has posted on social media saying: “The activity makes a mockery of those who said only one or two cases a week might occur outside of previous 39 hour schedule! We need to see 24/7 delivered ASAP.”

Most people know that a major new surgical hub is under construction at Maypark Lane, however, the vertical Out-Patients Department, which has been described in in-house UHW correspondence as “the most important project in hand to radically increase patient throughput”, which has full planning permission since 2022 and is in the HSE National Capital Plan, is still “queued for funding”! 

This, in a week when a tender call for the construction of a new National Maternity Hospital, estimated to cost at least €1 billion, on the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, appeared on the government e-tender site. 

This will add to the already bloated health spending for Dublin with over €2.2 billion on the yet-to-open National Children’s Hospital. 

Two proposed new major elective hospitals are in the offing. 

National media generally disregards criticism of the amount of state spending going to Dublin. The capital, like all capitals, has a deaf ear and the national media has been full of comment on the proposed Metro North with various Dublin councillors trying to convince all and sundry that the €23 billion cost is justified. 

“Because we’re worth it”? 

We await millions, they await billions!

The joint Academy of Urbanism (AoU) and Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) conference on the subject of “Ireland 2050: Balanced by Design” took place last week at Dublin Castle. One report of the proceedings asserts that “Local authorities lack the ability to plan big cities.” 

More about that in the coming weeks, meanwhile, Waterford might suggest that government lacks the ability to plan small cities. 

Other than Dublin and Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford are small cities. Waterford is the smallest of the three. All national planning literature underlines the need to develop Waterford city and government will point to the North Quays as an instance of that support. 

But the meat in the sandwich is forever slow to arrive. 

UHW has received support with an uptick in staff and budget, but still lags behind in stroke and other services. The hospital is physically too small for its remit, a situation that has persisted since it was built 30% smaller than originally planned when opened in 1993. 

SETU has been awarded prestigious new degree courses in veterinary and pharmacy to commence in 2026, but there are extremely worrying reports emanating from the Cork Road that all is not well in terms of IT and other supports.

The long financial starvation and resource deprivation, which SETU Waterford suffered at the hands of Fine Gael governments since 2011, have left an indelible mark on our third-level institution and undermined its reputation and capacity. 

While legacy universities and some favoured Institutes of Technology were bloated with capital investment and new facilities, WIT, the forerunner of SETU and once premier Institute of Technology, was crucified. Rumours of leaking roofs in older buildings persist to this day, although the Cork Road campus is looking immeasurably better. 

While student numbers doubled at universities like UL, Maynooth and DCU, which were once comparable to WIT, Waterford student numbers and course developments suffered a draconian curtailment. Development was suppressed. Why?

We’re not supposed to dredge up the past in these matters and must instead hope for a brave new SETU world, but it is extremely hard to be positive while promised capital developments are interminably slow-walked. 

Completion dates for the long-awaited engineering building, which are drifting towards very late this decade, are alarming. No amount of PR soft soap will ease that.